Florida to face Cincinnati in Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day

This will be the eighth Sugar Bowl for the Gators, and the 19th consecutive season Florida has played in a bowl game.

It's not where the Gators had hoped to finish the season, but UF coach Urban Meyer said he expect Florida to be ready to play.

This is one of the great bowls in college football history,'' Meyer said. "Every time I talked to someone today, (they said) 'Hey, we're going to the Sugar Bowl. We'll get this team going. . . We have the winningest senior class in the history of the Southeastern Conference. Our legacy is going to be depending on how we finish the season.''

Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly, whose team finished No. 3 in the BCS, said the Bearcats look forward to the opportunity to play the Gators.

"Florida Gator football, it's synonymous with success and it is really the benchmark for college football over the past half dozen years,'' Kelly said. "Clearly this is a matchup that our kids, their eyes are wide open when you say Florida Gators as your matchup game.''

The Sugar Bowl matchup will feature Meyer against his former alma mater.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised by Fox. This marks the first time that two top five teams have met in a non-championship Sugar Bowl since 1977.

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